‘1923’ Season 1 Finale Recap & Ending Explained: Does Spencer and Alex Reach America?
Welcome to the Recap and Ending Explained for 1923, the second spin-off that serves as a sequel to the main Yellowstone show. The project has been announced to have two seasons, and we have finally reached the end of the first one. It has been quite a journey, and Taylor Sheridan hasn’t disappointed us when it comes to raising the stakes and increasing the drama to new levels. This season finale cements 1923 as the best spin-off show in the Yellowstone Universe. Knowing that more will come, we can only hope they are up to par with this one in quality.
The season really saw the Dutton family put in a very interesting situation. 1883 saw the family trying to tame their environment. However, this new season sees the family in a very strange place as this time. The world is changing very fast around them. It is funny that the Dutton family is basically having the same conversations on progress, human rights, and more in both 1923 and 2023. It is a waking call that while some things change, others stay the same.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for the 1923 season finale. Read at your own risk.
Does Banner Goes To Jail After His Trial?
In the previous episode, we saw Jacob and the other members of the Yellowstone ranch going with the police to arrest Banner for his crimes. They grabbed him in the middle of a party with some prostitutes and took him to jail. However, Donald Whitfield, The Dutton’s true enemy, is already prepared for something like this to happen, and he sends his lawyers to work with Banner. This episode begins with the trial, and things don’t go as Jacob wanted. Banner’s lawyer argues that Jacob Dutton tried to kill Banner without a trial, and that nullifies whatever right he has to call for justice.
The judge agrees that having tried to take justice into his own hands makes Jacob just as bad as Banner, and he gets Banner gets released without bail. Banner and Jacob confront each other and threaten each other’s lives. Banner also talks with Donald, where the miner explains to the shepherd that everything he does is for his legacy. He isn’t looking for money to spend on prostitutes, no. He wants enough money so that his great-great-grandchild can also be rich, just like him. Generational wealth is immortality, he says.
On top of this bad outcome regarding Jacob’s grudge against Banner, the family also receives another blow in more intimate matters. After many days of suffering, Elizabeth loses the baby she was carrying. Elizabeth is destroyed, and Jack is upset as well, of course. Elizabeth feels like she has no purpose if she cannot make Jack a father. To which Jack responds by saying that his aunt, Clara, never had kids, and yet, she is a mother to everyone. In his eyes, his aunt is anything but a failure, which doesn’t make Elizabeth a failure either.
Jacob feels the passing of time and knows things are not going well for the ranch. He goes to the back to ask for a loan but receives no response, even though Jacob has always paid his loans on time. By the end of the episode, the family receives the biggest blow to their pride and welfare. Donald visits Jacob and Clara at the ranch and explains that he knows Jacob hasn’t paid his property taxes, so he pays them for them. However, if they do not pay him by the end of the year, the land deed goes to him. Jacob is speechless. It seems they have already lost the war.
Does Spencer And Alex Reach America?
The ranch is not going well, even outside the main Dutton family. Throughout the episodes, we meet a loyal ranch hand named Zane. He seems to be the main hand at the ranch, and Jacob and all others greatly trust him. In this episode, we see more of Zane as a character, and we discover he has a wife and two kids. However, his wife is Chinese, and his children are mixed race, which seems to be against the law in Montana. His wife gets taken, and the policemen beat Zane down when he tries to defend her.
For all that the Yellowstone franchise is labeled as conservative propaganda, this season of 1923 has proven that it is one of the most progressive franchises on TV. It gives its lessons without preaching, and it only shows the different angles to an issue and how they can all be valid from different points of view. Teonna’s storyline has been a major example of this. There is not much of her in this season finale, but we see that she has entered a relationship with Hank’s son, and alone with her father, they have decided to go south to the Comanche reservation. Lawmen and father Renaud are after her.
Meanwhile, Spencer and Alexandra’s adventures continue. In the previous episode, they crossed ways with Alexandra’s former fiancée and his family. It was an awkward moment. But it becomes worse when they find themselves on the same transatlantic. Alex plans to stay in her room for all three weeks of the journey, but Spencer says she needs to go on deck and watch the horizon not to become dizzy. She does as he says, and on deck, she meets Jennifer, one of her old friends. Their exchange is tense, but the pair definitely cares for each other.
Alexandra decides to eat dinner at the ball, which becomes an issue as Alex’s old fiancée takes it as a wound to his honor. He challenges Spencer to a sword duel on deck. They do it, and Spencer wins easily. However, the man pulls a gun on Spencer, and Spencer throws him overboard, winning him a trip to the brig. Jennifer comes forward and attests that Spencer did it only in self-defense because he got a gun pulled on him. However, Alex’s old fiancée’s father is a royal family member and wants Spencer off the ship. They take him to shore with Alex captive on board. However, she promises she will meet him in Montana.
